Dear clients,
Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday directly challenged Twitter with the Threads service, amassing millions of users in a matter of hours, as it seeks to take advantage of the position of its competitor, which is in a significantly weakened state after a series of chaotic decisions by its owner Elon Musk.
„Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,“ Zuckerberg wrote in his first message on the app, along with a fiery emoji. According to him, 5 million people signed up to the app in the first four hours. Analysts say Threads‘ tie-up with Instagram could give it a built-in user base and advertising machine. This could siphon off advertising dollars from Twitter at a time when its new CEO is trying to revive its struggling business.
Although Threads launched as a standalone app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts, potentially making it an easy addition to the existing habits of Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users. According to experts, investors can’t help but get excited at the prospect of Meta actually having a „Twitter killer“.
Like Twitter, the app contains short text messages that users can tag, repost and reply to, although it does not have the ability to send direct messages. Messages can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos lasting up to five minutes, according to Meta’s blog.
Meta shares rose 3% on Wednesday ahead of the launch, outpacing the rise of rival tech companies.
